Photo credit: NASA/JPL
This photo of Neptune was taken in 1989 by Voyager 2. Voyager 2 was 9.2 million miles from the last planet in our solar system when this photo was snapped. To me, those two facts by themselves make the image wonder-worthy. Twenty years ago. 9.2 million miles. We took photos this amazing from that distance twenty years ago.
Those facts give me the same feeling as when I walk into the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. and look at all the gear that astronauts wore on the moon missions in the 1960s. It was – literally – nuts and bolts. Copper. Steel. Plastic. No carbon nanotubes. No silicon microchips shrunk to the size of a rice grain. Just nuts and bolts. And a lot of determination.
That aspect of exploration – the determination – is what I see in this photo of Neptune. Today’s photos show us galaxies and supernovas ages away. Sometimes it is good to remember that the places closer to home are just as amazing, just as spectacular, and not really that close at all. This is why astronomy is such an exceptional science – the odds are tremendous, and success even more so. So take a moment from your day and enjoy what Voyager 2 did for you two decades ago.
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